Animal Rights Uncompromised:
Zoos

PETA opposes zoos because zoo cages and cramped enclosures deprive animals of their most basic needs. The zoo community regards the animals it keeps as commodities, and animals are regularly bought, sold, borrowed, and traded without any regard for established relationships. Animals are bred because babies bring in money, but their fate is often bleak once they outgrow their "cuteness." And some zoos still capture animals from the wild.

In general, zoos and wildlife parks preclude or severely restrict natural behaviors, such as flying, swimming, running, hunting, climbing, scavenging, foraging, exploring, and partner selection. The physical and mental frustrations of captivity often lead to abnormal, neurotic, and even self-destructive behaviors, such as pacing, swaying, head-bobbing, bar-biting, and self-mutilation.

Even big zoos with fancy names and a high degree of popularity, such as the San Diego Wild Animal Park, engage in unscrupulous practices, such as dumping unwanted "surplus" animals and taking animals from the wild. Proponents of zoos like to claim that zoos protect species from extinction—seemingly a noble goal. However, wild-animal parks and zoos almost always favor large and charismatic animals who draw crowds and neglect less popular, but still needy, species. Most animals in zoos are not endangered, and while confining animals to zoos keeps them alive, it does nothing to protect wild populations. Returning captive-bred animals to the wild is, in most cases, impossible because animals reared in zoos are denied the opportunity to learn survival skills, may carry diseases picked up from other animals at the zoo or even from people, and often have no natural habitat left to return to because of human encroachment. Breeding programs simply provide cute baby animals to attract zoo patrons and generate revenue, creating a surplus of unwanted adult animals. As a result, zoos often find themselves extremely crowded, and older animals may be "warehoused" or shuffled off to shabby roadside zoos or auctions.

According to a 2004 report by the World Conservation Union, the world's biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate primarily because of human activities that cause destruction of habitat; exploiting animals for food, the pet trade, and medicine; pollution; and climate change. Captive breeding does nothing to address these serious problems that currently put more than 15,000 species in jeopardy of extinction. In fact, the many millions of dollars that zoos regularly squander—on redesigning enclosures that do little to nothing to improve animal welfare, erecting statues and amusement rides, and building gift shops and concession stands—would be much better spent on habitat preservation projects.

Warehousing animals is not the way to save them from extinction. Their salvation lies in protecting habitats, not in life imprisonment in zoos. Instead of patronizing zoos, help animals by supporting organizations that work to protect captive animals from exploitation and to preserve habitats.

Read more about zoos.